mick ruis | Horse Racing Free Tips

It Ain’t Over Yet: Bolt D’Oro Connections File Appeal In Justify Scopolamine Case

Just eight days after the California Horse Racing Board decided it would not disqualify Triple Crown winner Justify from his win in the 2018 Santa Anita Derby due to a scopolamine positive, connections of Bolt d'Oro, the runner-up in that race, have filed an official appeal to overturn that decision. According to the Thoroughbred Daily News, CHRB executive director Scott Chaney revealed the appeal at the outset of the board's Thursday meeting, and indicated that the appeal would be considered during a closed-door session on Jan. 21.

“The board of stewards at Santa Anita issued a [Dec. 9] decision in which they concluded that a disqualification was not appropriate,” Chaney said during the CHRB meeting. “I made the decision not to appeal that ruling. The board has since received a request to appeal and overturn that decision from the connections of the second-place finisher in the race in question, Bolt d'Oro. The board will decide whether to entertain that request during the executive session at the January board meeting.”

The CHRB initially faced public outcry when a New York Times report published in September of 2018 revealed that post-race samples from both Justify and his Bob Baffert-trained stablemate Hoppertunity, winner of the 2018 Tokyo City Cup, contained scopolamine. Prior to its publication, the CHRB made the decision in a closed-doors executive session during the summer of 2018 not to pursue disciplinary action or disqualify horses after a cluster of positive tests for scopolamine across multiple barns, which CHRB staff determined was a result of exposure to jimsonweed in hay.

In January of 2020, Bolt d'Oro's owner Mick Ruis filed a petition in Los Angeles County Superior Court asking for a writ ordering the CHRB to set aside its decision to dismiss Santa Anita Derby winner Justify's positive test in the Santa Anita Derby and to order disqualification of Justify with a redistribution of the purse.

The CHRB's settlement of that civil suit included an agreement to file a complaint seeking disqualification of Justify from the 2018 Santa Anita Derby. Connections of Justify and Hoppertunity subsequently filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent the stewards from hearing the case. The application for that restraining order was denied.

The hearing was held on Oct. 29, 2020, and the CHRB handed down its decision to dismiss the complaint on Dec. 9.

Now, another closed-door session of the CHRB will determine whether Ruis' appeal will be considered.

The post It Ain’t Over Yet: Bolt D’Oro Connections File Appeal In Justify Scopolamine Case appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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With Newly Filed Appeal, Justify DQ Case Sparks Back to Life

The long and complicated case over whether to disqualify 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify for his GI Santa Anita Derby scopolamine positive sparked back to life Dec. 17, eight days after the Santa Anita Park board of stewards dismissed complaints against two Bob Baffert-trained horses that had been filed by the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) as part of a legal settlement.

At the outset of Thursday’s regularly scheduled CHRB meeting, the board’s executive director, Scott Chaney, explained how because of a newly filed appeal, the 2 1/2-year regulatory odyssey that a previous version of the CHRB largely adjudicated in secret would once again hinge on another closed-session vote by current CHRB members Jan. 21, 2021.

Chaney said as part of his monthly report that “the board of stewards at Santa Anita issued a [Dec. 9] decision in which they concluded that a disqualification was not appropriate. I made the decision not to appeal that ruling. The board has since received a request to appeal and overturn that decision from the connections of the second-place finisher in the race in question, Bolt d’Oro. The board will decide whether to entertain that request during the executive session at the January board meeting.”

CHRB members did not ask questions about Chaney’s report when given the opportunity to comment on it after he was finished.

On Oct. 29, the stewards listened to four-plus hours of back-and-forth testimony and cross-examination that largely centered on scopolamine’s classification at the time of Justify’s positive. Baffert’s attorney also argued that the stewards shouldn’t even be re-hearing the case at all because the CHRB already adjudicated it without imposing any penalization or race disqualification in an August 2018 executive session.

That controversial 2018 commission vote took place privately after a detailed–but not publicly disclosed at the time–investigation that led to the exoneration of Justify and Baffert based on a finding of accidental environmental contamination by jimson weed.

Although Justify was the “headline horse” in that case, the stewards on Oct. 29 were also tasked with re-adjudicating a scopolamine positive from MGISW Hoppertunity, another Baffert trainee who similarly tested dirty when winning the GIII Tokyo City Cup S. the day after Justify won the Santa Anita Derby.

For context, the two positives of the Baffert trainees were not isolated cases. In roughly the same time frame in 2018, the CHRB received post-race findings for scopolamine on five other horses whose levels did not trigger complaints for positives. The CHRB eventually considered those other findings to also be the result of unintentional contaminations from ingesting tainted hay.

But it was more than a year before news about Justify’s positive and non-penalization became widely known. On Sept. 11, 2019, the New York Times broke the story that Justify tested positive when he won the Santa Anita Derby, a GI Kentucky Derby points qualifying race that vaulted him into contention for the Triple Crown that he would eventually sweep.

That revelation sparked a January 2020 lawsuit initiated against the CHRB by Mick Ruis, who owned and trained the 2018 Santa Anita Derby runner-up, Bolt d’Oro. In his suit, Ruis alleged that the CHRB’s secret vote to dismiss the case led Ruis to suffer “the loss of purse caused by the CHRB’s failing to disqualify Justify and re-distribute the purse for the positive test result.”

Eight months later, as part of a negotiated settlement to get Ruis to drop his lawsuit, the CHRB again met in closed session, voting Aug. 20, 2020, to reverse its previous course of no action and to proceed with a complaint seeking the disqualification of Justify and the redistribution of the purse from that stakes.

That led to the Oct. 29 hearing, which then produced the Dec. 9 order of dismissal signed by stewards John Herbuveaux, Kim Sawyer, and Ron Church.

The post With Newly Filed Appeal, Justify DQ Case Sparks Back to Life appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Ask Ray: Where Did The Comments Sections Go?

As publisher Ray Paulick said in the introduction to this latest installment of “Ask Ray,” it's been a while. But the Paulick Report is in the process of deciding whether or not to permanently remove the comments section from the website, and Ray wanted to explain the reasons for the possible change after receiving a number of inquiries. Comments have been disabled … for now at least.

And since he got out of his pajamas, shaved and made himself somewhat presentable, he decided to dip into the “Ask Ray” mailbag and answer a few other questions from readers.

Ray tries to respond to all the emails and “Ask Ray” inquiries he receives. so if you don't hear from him immediately, you can probably assume he's forgotten, or your query is pushed too far down into his inbox. Don't be afraid to remind him again. And again if necessary.

The post Ask Ray: Where Did The Comments Sections Go? appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Letter to the Editor: Darrell Vienna

I read with interest the article “Baffert’s Lawyer: Drape’s `False’ Story `Debunked‘” published today on your website. Although I represent Mick Ruis, the following comments set forth facts that cannot be disputed and address a number of the patently false or clearly misleading representations contained in that article.

JUSTIFY’S OFFICIAL SAMPLE AND SPLIT SAMPLE CONFIRMED THE PRESENCE OF SCOPOLAMINE. The prohibited substance, scopolamine, was detected in the official test sample collected from Justify following the running of the 2018 Santa Anita Derby. Split sample testing, requested by Justify’s trainer, Bob Baffert, confirmed the presence of scopolamine.

SCOPOLAMINE WAS A CLASS 3, PENALTY B SUBSTANCE IN 2018. At the time of the running of the 2018 Santa Anita Derby, California Horse Racing Board (“CHRB”) Classification of Foreign Substances categorized scopolamine as a Class 3, Penalty B substance. It has been argued that the CHRB Classification of Foreign Substances must follow the ARCI guidelines. That is patently false as the CHRB Classification is not subordinate to ARCI guidelines. While the CHRB Classification is generally based on ARCI guidelines, specific incorporation of ARCI Guidelines must be adopted in accordance with California law as set forth in California’s Administrative Procedures Act (“APA”). The APA is designed to provide the public with a meaningful opportunity to participate in the adoption of state regulations and to ensure that regulations are clear, necessary and legally valid. Consequently, ARCI guidelines are not incorporated in CHRB guidelines unless they are specifically adopted in conformance with the APA process. Hence, any claim that scopolamine was classified as a CHRB category 4, penalty class C substance at the time of Justify’s participation in the 2018 Santa Anita Derby is false.

A FINDING BY THE BOARD OF STEWARDS THAT JUSTIFY’S POST-RACE SAMPLES CONTAINED SCOPOLAMINE MUST RESULT IN DISQUALIFICATION.

CHRB Rule 1859.5 provides that a finding by the Board of Stewards that the official sample and the split sample contain as a category 1 through 3 substance as classified by CHRB Classification of Foreign Substances requires that the horse must be disqualified and the purse, award, prize, or record must be forfeited regardless of culpability for the condition of the horse.

THE CHRB’S ADOPTION OF THE ARCI GUIDELINE REGARDING SCOPOLAMINE WAS NOT PROPOSED BEFORE THE 2018 SANTA ANITA DERBY.

There is no record of any CHRB attempt to adopt a change in its classification of Scopolamine from Class 3 to Class 4 until after the August 2018 closed session when CHRB chose not to pursue an enforcement action against Bob Baffert related to the 2018 Santa Anita Derby. Any statement that the belated adoption of the change was due to clerical error, regulatory inefficiency, or administrative backlog is not true.

CHRB RULES ARE BASED UPON THE PRESENCE OF A DRUG, NOT THE EFFECT OF THE DRUG.

It has also been argued that scopolamine has no performance enhancing effect. CHRB regulation do not address, much less, require a finding of performance enhancement. Disqualification under CHRB rules is based upon the presence, not the potential effect, of a prohibited substance.

THE CHRB’S PRIOR ACTION REGARDING BOB BAFFERT DID NOT ADDRESS PURSE DISQUALIFICATION.

In August, 2018, the CHRB, in executive session, opted not to engage in an enforcement action against Bob Baffert. Neither at that time, nor at any time thereafter until the recent CHRB hearing, did the CHRB even consider the issue of Purse Disqualification. Then CHRB Chairman Chuck Winner has repeatedly stated in relation to that 2018 executive session that “. . . the issue of purse redistribution was not considered.” Any argument that the issue of purse disqualification was dismissed in that aforementioned executive session is unfounded.

ONLY TWO HORSES, JUSTIFY AND HOPPERTUNITY EXCEEDED THE LABORATORY THRESHOLD FOR SCOPOLAMINE.

Claims that 5 other horses tested positive for scopolamine around the time that Justify and Hoppertunity tested positive are false. The CHRB Official Laboratory is only alleged to have found traces of scopolamine and/or atropine in the five other horses. The levels found in these five horses was below the laboratory threshold required for a certificate of analysis to be issued; consequently, the samples from these five horses were never reported as positives and any suggestion otherwise is baseless.

In sum, the statements in the article attributed to Mr. Robertson fail to address the fact that scopolamine was Class 3, Penalty B substance at the time and that a Purse Disqualification hearing which had not been previously conducted is required.

Sincerely,

Darrell Vienna

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